YEAR IN REVIEW: Clarksville business climate strong in 2016

Claude Townsend of 3-D Sports, left, receives help from Neil Cariani of CX 360° during Google's small-business event at Old Glory Distilling Co. on March 7, 2016. The event was held to help small businesses build a web presence.(Photo: Ayrika Whitney / The Leaf-Chronicle)Buy Photo

Big business interests entering the Clarksville marketplace, strengthening tourism and a solid, ever-expanding retail and real estate presence — these factors continued to define the local economy in 2016.

Under an improving employment picture, local sales tax collections continued to grow, showing record retail spending on a monthly basis.

Retail and restaurant growth and expansion continued all over Montgomery County, but especially around Exit 4 of Interstate 24 and Governor's Square Mall. The year ended with news that a shopping center anchored by a large grocery store is coming soon near Exit 11. More developments on that front should be revealed by early 2017.

Real estate sales and prices grew as well. From January through November, the number of new homes sold in the Clarksville region was 3,858, compared with 3,248 for the first 11 months of 2015. The average price was $174,784 for most of 2016, versus $168,676 for the same period in 2015.

Two big business names were known to be coming during 2016. Hankook Tire's $800 million tire plant saw the bulk of its construction in the past year, as it gears up for a production launch. Once it's in full gear in the next year, the plant is expected to employ about 1,600 people. It expects to employ 2,000 people by 2020.

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Buildings at the Clarksville Hankook site during construction on June 20, 2016(Photo: Ayrika Whitney / The Leaf-Chronicle)

2016 started out with the fresh news that Clarksville-Montgomery County will become home to a $600 million Google data center in the next few years. The massive technology sector project is now in the design and development phase. While it will employ only about 70 technicians, the plant represents a massive industrial investment.

Population climbs

Clarksville’s population in 2016 was estimated at 149,120, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. This growth reflected an 11.6 percent increase over the past five years.

Based on the same report, the Montgomery County population is growing quickly toward 200,000, with a 2015 estimate of 193,479, which also is up 11.6 percent from 2010. The number of households in the county increased to 70,494, up 7.7 percent over 2014.

While Tennessee as a whole grew 13.6 percent in the past decade, Clarksville and Montgomery County both experienced growth rates of more than 35 percent. At the county level, that means almost 10 new residents per day.

Clarksville remained one of the youngest cities in the state with a median age of 29.7, nearly nine years younger than the state as a whole. Only a handful of Tennessee cities have a median age lower than 30 — all of them much smaller than Clarksville — those being Martin, Cookeville, Henderson, Cumberland Gap and Darden.

The locally owned hardware store in operation since 1963 announced in late June it would close after Jackie Langford, vice president, decided to retire.

The 100,000-square-foot store at 1894 Fort Campbell Blvd. was founded by Don G. Riner, better known as "Grandpa." He was an accomplished pilot who had flown as an Army Air Corps flight instructor in India during World War II.

The Clarksville hospital is still owned by Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems, which is a parent of the Tennova network. The Tennova network includes about 2,600 licensed beds, 2,400 physicians on the combined medical staffs and 9,600 employees, with more than 75,000 admissions and 460,000 emergency department visits each year.

The hospital now known as Tennova is still on track with plans to build a satellite emergency facility near Exit 11.

APSU shares College Street vision

Just ahead of Jenkins and Wynne auto dealership officially moving from downtown into a much larger space near Trenton Road and 101st Airborne Division Parkway, Austin Peay State University unveiled its plans for the 11-acre site left behind.

The property, which runs along both sides of College Street heading toward downtown Clarksville, was purchased by APSU for $8.8 million.

The vision outlined in February is designed to better connect downtown with the campus through mixed-use property development. Included in the plans are a multipurpose arena, academic buildings, student housing, shops and restaurants.

Immediate use of the property will be parking for the university. Plans are in place to renovate the buildings on the property for an art gallery and office space for cramped programs.

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Two young Rivers & Spires attendees get a piggyback through the Family Zone of the three-day festival.(Photo: Autumn Allison / The Leaf-Chronicle)

Rivers & Spires record

The 2016 Rivers & Spires Festival shattered previous attendance records, bringing over 49,000 people into downtown Clarksville over the April 14-16 weekend. This year’s event was the largest Rivers & Spires to date, with the 2010 festival previously holding the record at 42,073 when the Charlie Daniels Band performed.

Attendance numbers are calculated through ticket sales, as well as the weight of garbage and recycling collected over the three days. This year, the festival collected over 12 tons of garbage and over 2 tons of recyclable plastic and aluminum.

Chris Smith contributed to this report. Reach Business Editor Jimmy Settle at 931-245-0247 and on Twitter @settle_leaf.